This is no different than other small businesses. I’ve had to do it myself more than once.
“The country (weather, blight, etc.) has a bad year - they can get a good price for their crop, but they hardly have any crop to sell. Then in good years, everybody has all sorts of product to sell but they can't get a good price.”
Of course, when I was growing up he was borrowing money at 25% and mortgage rates were 20% so nobody was buying a new home either. He held on though through the lean Carter years (and the lean periods before that) and did okay in the end.
Started his first home at the age of 23 in 1941. Then the war interrupted that project - but his dad (also a builder) finished it for him. Lots of ups and downs from 1945 to 1983.
Many family farmers have to take out loans every year; many are hanging on by their fingernails. Business wise many farms are a bust. What keeps many farmers hanging on is not valid business decisions but the desire to keep the farm in the family- sentimental reasons, attachment to the land. Many of the farms have been in the family for a very long time, there is a lot of pressure to hang on. I can understand there would be a lot of stress in doing that. There are ranchers in the same spot. Everything has to work out just right weather wise and market wise for them to have a profitable year. That is not realistic business wise so hard to justify for loans, hard to stay in business.
What bothers me is farms and ranches are our food source. They are going out of business every day a lot of land goes out of production and is developed meaning it will never be back in production and few are concerned. Many of the lefties actually want ranchers out of business, they are vegetarians and want everyone else to be. They seem to have no concern about ordinary farmers either, their idea is the small organic farms will replace the “old” farmers. The small organic farmers plainly say they cannot do that, cannot make the numbers work to replace ordinary farming but no one said lefties are smart.
I hope people wake up before we have a food crisis. We have burdened ranchers and farmers with a lot of environmental and other regulations that are hard for them to deal with. I don’t know what the answer is; a different mindset about the people that feed us would be helpful.
Many years ago our leadership in this country determined we really needed food so many government programs were put in place to help support farmers and ranchers who have to deal so much with mother nature. The left and even many conservatives don’t understand the reasoning behind some of the programs and see it as ranching and farming welfare- but those programs/land leases. ETC. are the reason our agriculture system feeds not only us but is able to feed many people in other countries as well.